One form of streaming tape drive is disclosed in patent application Ser. No. 185,793, filed Apr. 25, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,312 assigned to the assignee of this invention, and is sold by Qualstar Corporation, 9621 Irondale Avenue, Chatsworth, Calif. 91311, as Model 1260. This is a nine-track tape drive with special error checking and tabular error syndrome correction circuitry, and has a data format which is IBM/ANSI compatible. The storage density involves 6,250 characters per inch, at a tape speed of 12.5 inches per second.
There are commercially available rack-mounted, streaming tape drive units which operate at higher speeds, for example, at speeds up to 125 inches per second. However, the commercially available units are relatively massive and heavy, having rack heights of 14 inches, or 83/4 inches, for specific examples, and weights of more than 100 pounds. In this regard, it is noted that rack-mounted electronic equipment is normally 19 inches wide and has a height which is measured in increments of 13/4 inches. The rack-mounted unit mentioned above which has a height of 14 inches involves eight increments of 13/4 inches; and the units which are 83/4 inches high each include five increments.
Accordingly, a principle object of the present invention is to significantly reduce the height of rack-mounted streaming tape drives which have high data densities and speeds, and self-threading capabilities.
Self-threading of the tape between a supply reel and the take-up reel is a desirable feature of tape drives, and this is accomplished in prior units by large special ducts mounted below a main base plate, using a constant speed blower which blows or sucks the tape through a tape path from the supply reel past the read/write head to the take-up reel.
A supplemental object of the present invention is to reduce the size, weight and noise of the blower and associated ducts.